Q:
I am trying to add a virtual wireless interface to my debian squeeze system using iw.
The output of iw list is shown below:
root@alix:~# iw list
Wiphy phy0
I am using the command:
iw dev phy0 interface add wlan1 type station
to add the virtual interface wlan1 however this gives me the error:
command failed: No such device (-19)
If I use the command:
iw dev wlan0 interface add wlan1 type station
it passes fine however if I try use both wlan0 and wlan1 I get an error saying neither are unique and so that doesn't work for me.
Anyone any ideas what could be causing this? Thanks
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A:
About the first error you get ("command failed: No such device (-19)"): You can either use
iw phy phy0 interface add <name> type <type>
or
iw dev wlan0 interface add <name> type <type>
As long as the physical names and the device names don't clash, you can also omit the phy/dev keywords and simply use
iw phy0 interface add <name> type <type>
About using both interfaces at the same time and the message about them not being unique:
This is probably because they both use the same MAC address. You can try to change the MAC address of the new interface before activating it.
ip link set dev <dev-name> address <new-mac-address>
A word about your interface modes:
My iw command (v3.4) says
Valid interface types are: managed, ibss, monitor, mesh, wds.
Not sure what "station" will do.
Also, if you're trying to operate the two interfaces in different modes, make sure your wlan card supports this:
iw list
[...]
Supported interface modes:
* IBSS
* managed
* AP
* AP/VLAN
* WDS
* monitor
* mesh point
software interface modes (can always be added):
* AP/VLAN
* monitor
interface combinations are not supported
Notice the last line.
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A:
iw dev <devname> interface add wlan1 type station
phy0 here in iw dev phy0 interface add wlan1 type station is a phyname, so you need change it to
wlan0